Wednesday Open Thread |Just Because I Love Them: Diana Ross

Posted on May 25, 2016 by rikyrah

Today, we will be entertained by MISS Ross.

diana-ross-live-in-central-park

This entry was posted in African Americans, Black History, Music, Open Thread, Politics and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

53 Responses to Wednesday Open Thread |Just Because I Love Them: Diana Ross

  1. Liza says:
    May 25, 2016 at 10:30 pm

    Reply
  4. eliihass says:
    May 25, 2016 at 9:53 pm

    LOL…

    https://twitter.com/Delo_Taylor/status/735249112602398720

    https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/730941617918644224

    More like, the only thing standing between Hillary Clinton and the Oval office is Donald Trump – and you silly useful idiots and firewalls better let me me exploit you … and after scaring you with Trump, Bill will get back to golfing with Trump and Chelsea will get back to sister-friending with Ivanka…

    https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/734811611395948546

    Reply
  6. rikyrah says:
    May 25, 2016 at 8:50 pm

    Lizz Brown ‎@lizzzbrown
    Just read @DonnaFEdwards piece for @Cosmopolitan let’s #LizzUnpacks her #TruthBomb http://goo.gl/6pz3h8

    Lizz Brown ‎@lizzzbrown
    Remember about a month ago #DonnaEdwards lost the Dem primary for the US Senate seat in MD?
    #LizzUnpacks

    Lizz Brown ‎@lizzzbrown
    Remember #DonnaEdwards ran as an African American liberal in an African American rich state of MD?
    #LizzUnpacks

    Lizz Brown ‎@lizzzbrown
    Remember white feminists endorsed the White male Dem & used racially coded language directed at Donna to do so?
    #DonnaEdwards
    #LizzUnpacks

    Lizz Brown ‎@lizzzbrown
    I remember the political horror of it and I storified the Democratic hypocrisy of it
    https://goo.gl/c8hYGP
    #DonnaEdwards
    #LizzUnpacks

    Lizz Brown ‎@lizzzbrown
    So now #DonnaEdwards has penned a piece for Cosmo and wounds that have yet to heal are ripped open again
    #LizzUnpacks

    Lizz Brown ‎@lizzzbrown
    #DonnaEdwards writes:
    I am a proud black woman,
    lawyer, systems engineer,
    nonprofit CEO,
    #LizzUnpacks

    Lizz Brown ‎@lizzzbrown
    #DonnaEdwards continues writing:
    I am a 5-term member of Congress
    1st Black woman elected to Congress in MD
    #LizzUnpacks

    Lizz Brown ‎@lizzzbrown
    #DonnaEdwards says this as the last sentence of her personal bio:
    I am a mom who raised my son mostly on my own
    #LizzUnpacks

    Lizz Brown ‎@lizzzbrown
    The bio of #DonnaEdwards is the bio of the perfect Progressive US Senate candidate it is #ProgressivePerfection
    #LizzUnpacks

    Lizz Brown ‎@lizzzbrown
    And yet…as #DonnaEdwards writes, she
    “ran right into the glass ceiling for black women with a concussion-worthy crash.”
    #LizzUnpacks

    Lizz Brown ‎@lizzzbrown
    #DonnaEdwards writes she was subject to a “barrage of personal attacks on my character, demeanor, personality, and appearance”
    #LizzUnpacks

    Lizz Brown ‎@lizzzbrown
    A US Senate candidate who has demonstrated #ProgressivePerfection for her entire CAREER was under assault for a year by PROGRESSIVES

    Reply
    • eliihass says:
      May 25, 2016 at 9:36 pm

      Sadly, until it happens to them, most black women would rather kiss Ms Ann’s butt and join to help rally around, elevate and keep Ms Ann elevated, celebrated and protected…all while never ever standing up for, defending, protecting or supporting their own…

      What Donna Edwards ran into was a reality check…a wake-up call..

      For 8 years, the non-stop brazen, malicious and vicious dehumanization and baseless and unprecedented maligning of the historic first black First Lady – the most visible metaphor for black womanhood today – has been largely ignored and gone unanswered even by other black women …

      There should not be any surprise therefore, that the rest of black womanhood is trivialized, disrespected and dismissed…

      You either stand together and show up for each other – and triumph…

      Or stay servile and kissing butt on the outermost fringes of the airtight circle of white feminism…and grateful for the occasional crumbs thrown your way – and if and only if and when there are absolutely no other white women – or men who want those crumbs…or else like Donna discovered, you’re out of luck…and stomped on and banished from the fringes of white feminism, for having the nerve to not conform…and worse, to complain…

      Reply
  9. rikyrah says:
    May 25, 2016 at 8:42 pm

    Jamila ‎@JamilaJP
    “Money is bad,” mixed w/some “Wealth negates Blackness” w/a sprinkle of “Who do they think they are?!” on top. @PragObots @HillaryKelly

    Reply
    • rikyrah says:
      May 25, 2016 at 8:45 pm

      Starpass ‎@Starpass2
      @Kennymack1971 @metaquest @PragmaticObot I get it…black people should retire to ghetto. White dudes to exclusive country clubs.

      Reply
  10. rikyrah says:
    May 25, 2016 at 8:39 pm

    Rylo Ken ‎@Kennymack1971
    I think a lot of media/opinion writers are mad that their efforts to make PBO the Democratic equivalent of GWB in his last term have failed.

    Reply
  12. rikyrah says:
    May 25, 2016 at 8:25 pm

    Wisconsin county clerk objects to weekend voting because it gives urban areas ‘too much access’
    25 MAY 2016 AT 15:52 ET

    A Wisconsin county clerk testified in federal court this week that weekend voting should be eliminated because it gave urban areas “too much access” to the polls.

    In a hearing on Tuesday, Republican Waukesha County clerk Kathleen Novack spoke in favor of voting restrictions signed into law by Gov. Scott Walker (R) between 2011 and 2015, which opponents argue suppress the votes of non-whites.

    According to The Cap Times, Novack said that voter ID restrictions and reduced early voting had caused “virtually no problems at all” in Waukesha County, which is about 95 percent white.

    Novack argued that the state should end weekend voting because it gave an unfair advantage to large urban areas, where minorities are more likely to support Democrats.

    “If there’s an office open 30 days versus an office that’s only open 10 work days, there are obviously voters that have a lot more access than someone else,” Novack insisted. “There has to come a point where it’s just giving over-access … to particular parts of the state.”

    When she was asked if some voters had too much access, Novack replied that there was “too much access to the voters as far as opportunities.”

    The county clerk added that long lines in urban areas were actually a sign that voters had enough access to polls.
    “Apparently access is an easy thing or they wouldn’t have long lines,” she opined.

    Reply
    • eliihass says:
      May 25, 2016 at 8:02 pm

      May his, and the souls of his fellow martyrs continue to rest in perfect peace…And may God continue to watch over his wife and their daughters…

      Reply
  15. rikyrah says:
    May 25, 2016 at 5:48 pm

    hat tip-POU

    this phuckery here!

    Because, of course, the Former First Family should go live in THE HOOD.

    PHUCK.OUTTA.HERE.

    ……………………….

    The Obamas Are Moving to Kalorama After the President Leaves Office. Ugh.
    By Hillary Kelly on May 24, 2016

    Today National Journal reported that, after leaving the media hanging as to the nature of their plans, the Obamas have finally made their decision on which DC neighborhood to call home after they leave 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., and Kalorama is the winner. “The White House is staying mum on exactly which house,” they reported, “but the neighborhood is rich with possibilities.”

    The neighborhood is also rich, period, a fact which has seemingly escaped most of the outlets that have reported the news. This isn’t exactly a surprise: the President earlier stated that the first family was choosing between Kalorama and Embassy Row, an equally tony neighborhood directly adjacent to it. Their home in Chicago, which they bought for $1.65 million in 2005 and is valued at just over $2 million, is a whopping 6,200 square feet and is set in chi-chi Hyde Park. And for the last eight years they’ve been roaming the hallowed halls of the most in-demand residence in the nation (aside from any of Martha Stewart’s houses, which, let’s face it, must be a delight). So the Obamas are no stranger to luxe living.

    ……………………………………………………….
    “Imagine the good it could do a struggling DC neighborhood if he moved in
    and established himself as a figurehead of the community, showing his
    face at local spots and bringing a sense of excitement”

    Reply
  16. rikyrah says:
    May 25, 2016 at 5:43 pm

    if they were Black, they’d be charged AS ADULTS…BET ON THAT.

    ………………

    White high school football players in Idaho charged in rape of black, disabled teammate with a coat hanger

    By Michael E. Miller
    May 25 at 3:31 AM

    When a teammate held out his arms after football practice in their high school locker room, the student thought he was about to get a hug.

    Instead, he got viciously raped, authorities say.

    As the teammate restrained the victim, another football player allegedly thrust a coat hanger into the victim’s rectum, according to a criminal complaint. Then a third teammate kicked the coat hanger several times.

    The Oct. 23, 2015, incident has rocked the tiny town of Dietrich, Idaho. This spring, after several months of investigation, the state attorney general’s office filed sexual assault charges against the three. Two of the teenagers are being charged as adults and could face life in prison, under Idaho law.

    Earlier this month, the victim’s family filed a $10 million lawsuit against Dietrich High School. According to the lawsuit, the attack wasn’t a one-off, but rather the culmination of months of racist abuse by white students against the victim, who is black.

    Reply
  17. rikyrah says:
    May 25, 2016 at 5:37 pm

    Toledo men charged, accused of beating man because of race
    25 MAY 2016 AT 10:45 ET

    A black Ohio man says he had his eye socket fractured by two white men in a pick-up truck that called him a racial slur and a f*g, ABC13 reports.

    Charles Edward Butler, 33, and Robert Allen Paschalis, 25, have been charged in the attack, Cleveland.com reports. The attack happened last week.

    “Two guys pulled up in a pickup truck and called me a fag. Then they rode down this way like they were about to turn around,” the victim, Adrian Williams, told ABC. “The two guys jumped out of the truck and called me a racial slur. They called me the N word. When he jumped out I grabbed a bat out of my truck hoping that they would back up and go about their business.”

    Instead, Williams ended up with a broken orbital bone and damage to his right eye.
    Butler and Paschalis were charged with assault, and Butler was charged with “ethnic intimidation,” the website reports.

    Williams told police he was loading tools into his truck when the two approached him. They called him the N word and the homophobic slur. Williams said he began to back away and grabbed a baseball bat from his truck for self-defense.

    Butler grabbed a broom from William’s truck and began to beat him with it while Paschalis punched him.

    “It just caught me totally off guard. I have never see these guys in my life,” Williams told ABC.

    A nearby business caught the beating on surveillance camera, and men working nearby came to Williams’ aid.
    “The guys at the rim shop came down,” he said. “A blessing from God. They came down and told them they had to leave him alone.”

    Reply
  24. SouthernGirl2 says:
    May 25, 2016 at 4:53 pm

    Who do they think they are? We have a brain & can think for ourselves. We can carry our own damn flag. My blood boils

    https://twitter.com/lizzzbrown/status/735538581599440896

    Reply
    • Ametia says:
      May 25, 2016 at 4:57 pm

      Carry the flag for people of color?

      We’re supposed to be that child-like and naïve to believe that CROCK-O-SHIT?

      That’s MASTER/SLAVE talk in 2016. UNFUCKINGBELIEVABLE.

      Reply
    • eliihass says:
      May 25, 2016 at 8:08 pm

      “…Back then, black soldiers faced all kinds of obstacles. There were the so-called scientific studies that said that black men’s brains were smaller than white men’s. Official Army reports stated that black soldiers were “childlike,” “shiftless,” “unmoral and untruthful,” and as one quote stated, “if fed, loyal and compliant.”

      So while the Airmen selected for this program were actually highly educated — many already had college degrees and pilots licenses — they were presumed to be inferior. During training, they were often assigned to menial tasks like housekeeping or landscaping. Many suffered verbal abuse at the hands of their instructors. When they ventured off base, the white sheriff here in town called them “boy” and ticketed them for the most minor offenses. And when they finally deployed overseas, white soldiers often wouldn’t even return their salutes.

      Just think about what that must have been like for those young men. Here they were, trained to operate some of the most complicated, high-tech machines of their day — flying at hundreds of miles an hour, with the tips of their wings just six inches apart. Yet when they hit the ground, folks treated them like they were nobody — as if their very existence meant nothing…”

      -First Lady Michelle Obama; Tuskegee University, May 9, 2015.

      Reply
  25. rikyrah says:
    May 25, 2016 at 11:29 am

    Republican VP contender’s finances draw FBI scrutiny
    05/25/16 11:20 AM
    By Steve Benen

    Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) has been the subject of a lot of vice-presidential speculation, and on paper, it’s easy to understand why. In fact, by some measures, the Tennessee Republican is the mirror opposite of Donald Trump: Corker is an experienced insider; he’s well liked within the party; and he’s the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. When it comes to VP speculation, that’s a lot of checked boxes.

    Plus, unlike many other prominent GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill, Corker doesn’t seem to hate the presumptive Republican nominee. Indeed, this week, the senator “declined an invitation to join President Barack Obama’s historic trip to Asia,” but Corker “did find time for a New York meeting with Donald Trump on Monday,” where the two reportedly chatted about foreign policy.

    All things considered, the Tennessean certainly looks like the kind of guy who’d make Trump’s short list for the Republican ticket. There is, however, a problem, which Politico highlighted overnight:

    The FBI and Securities and Exchange Commission are scrutinizing Tennessee GOP Sen. Bob Corker’s personal finances, including stock transactions involving one of the nation’s top developers of shopping centers and malls, according to multiple sources familiar with the probe.

    Corker, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and a potential vice presidential pick, failed to report millions of dollars in assets and income on his annual financial disclosure until The Wall Street Journal revealed the discrepancy last fall. In the wake of that report, Corker was forced to revise years’ worth of disclosure reports.

    It’s worth emphasizing that the exact nature of the FBI’s and SEC’s scrutiny is unclear – there have been no reports of a possible indictment – and Corker insists he’s done nothing wrong. Whether these probes will amount to anything is, at least for now, entirely speculative.

    Reply
  26. rikyrah says:
    May 25, 2016 at 10:32 am

    Trump Empowers Extremists in Congress
    by BooMan
    Wed May 25th, 2016 at 10:31:59 AM EST

    Every once in a while, I have to remind folks of some basic facts about Alabama Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III. This is one of those times.

    In 1986 (otherwise known as the year of Iran-Contra), President Ronald Reagan nominated Beauregard the Third to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama. During the Judiciary Committee hearings on his nomination, it became clear that Sessions suffered from a common conservative fear: namely, mouth-rape.

    Like so many of his Republican brethren, Sessions was terrified of having things “rammed down his throat” by the NAACP, ACLU, or some “un-American” and “Communist-inspired” guy who might decide to attack his home with a small arsenal.

    When it became clear that Jefferson Beauregard the Third was not only named for the president of the Confederacy and one its more more effective generals, but actually held the same beliefs in common with those two gentlemen, the Judiciary Committee declined to send his nomination to the floor. Alabama Senator Howell Heflin decided that Sessions was simply too racist to serve on the bench in Alabama, and so Reagan had to go back to the drawing board.

    Of course, Sessions got his revenge by getting elected to the same Senate that had rejected him as a judge and then winning an appointment to the same Judiciary Committee that had declined to send his nomination to the floor. Keeping Alabama racism at bay is like trying to drown a cork, and Sessions soon defined himself as one of the most extreme and intemperate opponents of Latino immigration in this country’s power structure. He was also the first U.S. Senator to endorse Donald Trump, and that’s now paying dividends.

    Reply
  28. rikyrah says:
    May 25, 2016 at 10:09 am

    where DA PHUQ have they been?

    this is ridiculous.

    should have been formed the day after that horrendous SC decision.

    ………………………………..

    The Voting Rights Caucus gets to work
    05/25/16 10:42 AM
    By Steve Benen

    The list of caucuses in Congress isn’t short. These officially recognized groups of lawmakers, who get together in pursuit of a common agenda, include names that are probably familiar to many Americans – the Congressional Black Caucus, for example – but there are plenty that are far more obscure. Before this morning, for example, I’d never heard of the Congressional Bourbon Caucus or the Congressional Explosive Ordnance Disposal Caucus, both of which evidently exist.

    Up until yesterday, however, there was no Voting Rights Caucus. Yesterday, as the Star-Telegram in Fort Worth reported, Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Texas) changed that.

    “The Supreme Court 2013 ruling that gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act set in motion what many feared: the subjection of minorities, seniors, and low-income Americans to unfair, punitive barriers preventing them from exercising their most basic right as American citizens,” Veasey said by email.

    In June, caucus members plan to introduce a bill, the Poll Tax Prohibition Act, which would block identification requirements that result in voters bearing an “associated cost,” such as acquiring a birth certificate or incurring travel costs.

    The caucus appears to already have 50 members, and though the list doesn’t identify lawmakers by party, a quick review suggests all 50 are Democrats.

    Reply
  29. rikyrah says:
    May 25, 2016 at 9:52 am

    Caught fibbing, Trump scrambles to address veterans controversy
    05/25/16 08:41 AM—UPDATED 05/25/16 08:48 AM
    By Steve Benen

    In a normal year, in a normal party, with a normal candidate, it would be the kind of controversy that effectively kills a presidential candidate’s chances of success. In January, Donald Trump skipped a Republican debate in order to host a fundraiser for veterans. He boasted at the time that he’d raised $6 million for vets – which led to a related boast that Trump contributed $1 million out of his own pocket.

    The Washington Post reported this week that Trump’s claims simply weren’t true. He did not, for example, raise $6 million. And what about the $1 million check the Republican bragged about? His campaign manager insisted this week that Trump did make the contribution.

    Except, that wasn’t true, either. The Post reported last night:

    Almost four months after promising $1 million of his own money to veterans’ causes, Donald Trump moved to fulfill that pledge Monday evening – promising the entire sum to a single charity as he came under intense media scrutiny.

    The check is apparently going to a group called the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation, whose chairman received a call from Trump on Monday night, the day the campaign controversy broke.

    Let’s put aside, for now, why the Trump campaign said he’d made a donation that did not exist. Let’s instead ask why it took nearly four months for the candidate to do what he claimed to have already done.

    Reply
  30. rikyrah says:
    May 25, 2016 at 9:33 am

    Maine’s LePage fails to defend the indefensible
    05/25/16 09:21 AM
    By Steve Benen

    It was the sort of story that made Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) look so awful, he managed to even surprise his critics. In mid-April, the far-right governor vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have allowed pharmacists to dispense an effective anti-overdose drug without a prescription. But it was LePage’s explanation that added insult to injury.

    “Naloxone does not truly save lives; it merely extends them until the next overdose,” LePage said in a written statement. As we discussed at the time, the governor, in a rather literal sense, made the case that those struggling with opioid addiction don’t have lives worth saving.

    Maine’s legislature soon after overrode LePage’s veto, but the governor recently hosted a town-hall meeting at which he defended his position. The Bangor Daily News reported:

    “A junior at Deering High School had three Narcan shots in one week. And after the third one, he got up and went to class. He didn’t go to the hospital. He didn’t get checked out. He was so used to it. He just came out of it and went to class,” LePage said.

    That’s quite an anecdote, which the Republican governor appears to have completely made up.

    Reply
  31. rikyrah says:
    May 25, 2016 at 9:29 am

    The ‘schmooze’ theory needs to go away
    05/24/16 10:47 AM—UPDATED 05/24/16 12:07 PM
    By Steve Benen
    CBS’s Norah O’Donnell talked with Valerie Jarrett, a senior advisor to President Obama, in a much-discussed interview that aired over the weekend, and much of the Q&A focused on one familiar thesis. Here, for example, was the first question, on the subject of Judge Merrick Garland’s Supreme Court nomination.

    “Valerie, this is probably one of the last big fights of the president’s term in office. And he can’t even get Senate Republicans to give him a hearing. Most Republicans won’t even meet with Judge Garland. Does that say something about President Obama’s inability to reach across the aisle? To have friends on the other side?”

    When Jarrett explained that Senate Republicans’ handling of the Garland nomination has more to do with politics than personal relationships, O’Donnell was unmoved. “But in two terms, seven years, why hasn’t the president been able to find a Republican that he can call up and say, ‘Help me out on this’?” the reporter asked. “Does he have any Republican friends?”

    As Mother Jones’ Kevin Drum noted, the interview just kept going along these lines, with O’Donnell asking nine questions in a row – literally, nine – about whether the president is sufficiently friendly with congressional Republicans. “Isn’t politics about schmoozing?” she asked. “And isn’t politics about friendship?”

    Reply
  32. rikyrah says:
    May 25, 2016 at 9:20 am

    Hmmph.
    They think they’re special.
    The dogwhistles were for them too…so, that they could shill themselves to the larger community.

    ……………………….

    What would it take to be ‘beyond redemption’?
    05/24/16 11:20 AM—UPDATED 05/24/16 12:18 PM
    By Steve Benen
    It’s hardly a secret that today’s Republican Party faces serious demographic challenges: in a country that’s increasingly diverse and multi-cultural, the contemporary GOP is increasingly white and homogeneous.

    But Republicans are not literally devoid of diversity. There are, for example, some prominent Hispanic conservatives who are nearly always aligned with GOP candidates up and down the ballot. Given that Donald Trump is the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, what are they thinking right about now? The Hill had an interesting report on this the other day.

    Prominent Hispanic conservatives say they could back Donald Trump if the presumptive GOP nominee changes his tone and walks back some of his policy positions.

    Republican Latino leaders have chaffed at Trump’s call for a wall on the southern border and statements from his campaign launch about rapists and criminals coming across the border from Mexico…. But prominent voices in the conservative Hispanic world say they’re ready to move toward Trump if he can move toward them.

    ………………..

    As MSNBC’s Benjy Sarlin noted the other day, in reference to the GOP’s Latino wing, “If they accept Trump, Republicans can take for granted they will accept literally anything from now on.”

    Reply
  33. rikyrah says:
    May 25, 2016 at 9:16 am

    GO Senator Warren

    She is showing the way, Democrats.

    SHE.IS.SHOWING.THE.WAY.

    Reply
    • eliihass says:
      May 25, 2016 at 8:45 pm

      LOL..

      Not really …

      Donald Trump is an easy target… A foil…the current convenient butt of everyone’s jokes – including the formerly cowering coward’s who’ve been M.I.A and mute for the past several years…

      They are all still very much cowards…where have they all been these past several years when their voices really mattered and wasn’t specifically about self-aggrandizing …or to over-compensate and to blur things up so as not to be pummeled by the Clinton flunkies for not formally endorsing Hillary …and for daring to play footsie with Bernie…and Joe Biden when he was contemplating running..

      Elizabeth Warren is as cowardly and as self-serving and as self-aggrandizing as all the rest…

      Reply
  34. rikyrah says:
    May 25, 2016 at 9:14 am

    Why are these stories coming from overseas papers?

    ……………………………….

    Exclusive: Donald Trump signed off deal designed to deprive US of tens of millions in tax
    by Ruth Sherlock Edward Malnick Claire Newell
    25 MAY 2016 • 2:00PM
    Donald Trump signed off on a controversial business deal that was designed to deprive the US Government of tens of millions of dollars in tax, the Telegraph can disclose.

    The billionaire approved a $50 million investment in a company – only for the deal to be rewritten several weeks later as a ‘loan’.

    Experts say that the effect of this move was to skirt vast tax liabilities, and court papers seen by the Telegraph allege that the deal amounted to fraud.

    Independent tax accountants and lawyers said that the documents Mr Trump signed – copies of which were obtained by this newspaper as part of a three-month investigation – contained “red flags” indicating the deal was irregular.

    But the Republican presumptive presidential nominee signed nonetheless.

    Reply
  35. rikyrah says:
    May 25, 2016 at 9:10 am

    May 25, 2016 10:00 AM
    Trump Pivots to the General Election…by Attacking Women
    By Nancy LeTourneau

    It has been fascinating to observe pundits who claim that Donald Trump will change his stripes during the general election in a way that appeals to a broader constituency. I’ve always thought that those assumptions were based on the idea that he was simply playing a character during the primaries – much as he did on TV. But that ignores the fact that he has been a narcissistic bully for a very long time.

    Now that Trump’s competitors have dropped out of the race and he is the presumptive Republican nominee, the bullying insults to anyone who challenges him have not stopped. Last night in New Mexico, his target was Gov. Susan Martinez – who happens to be the chair of the Republican Governor’s Association, the first Latina governor in the U.S. and the first female governor of New Mexico. But of course, this is what you get from Trump if you refuse to endorse him.

    Reply
  36. rikyrah says:
    May 25, 2016 at 9:05 am

    Political Animal Blog
    May 24, 2016 3:00 PM
    Vietnam: Then and Now
    By Nancy LeTourneau

    …………………………………
    Those are the stories that define my generation. I can understand why they don’t carry the same emotional weight for those who came of age after all of that was over. And I can also understand why President Obama’s words today to the people of Vietnam sound thoughtful, but don’t bring the tears that I shed when I read them.

    During the Second World War, Americans came here to support your struggle against occupation. When American pilots were shot down, the Vietnamese people helped rescue them. And on the day that Vietnam declared its independence, crowds took to the streets of this city, and Ho Chi Minh evoked the American Declaration of Independence. He said, “All people are created equal. The Creator has endowed them with inviolable rights. Among these rights are the right to life, the right to liberty, and the right to the pursuit of happiness.”
    In another time, the profession of these shared ideals and our common story of throwing off colonialism might have brought us closer together sooner. But instead, Cold War rivalries and fears of communism pulled us into conflict. Like other conflicts throughout human history, we learned once more a bitter truth — that war, no matter what our intentions may be, brings suffering and tragedy.

    At your war memorial not far from here, and with family altars across this country, you remember some 3 million Vietnamese, soldiers and civilians, on both sides, who lost their lives. At our memorial wall in Washington, we can touch the names of 58,315 Americans who gave their lives in the conflict. In both our countries, our veterans and families of the fallen still ache for the friends and loved ones that they lost. Just as we learned in America that, even if we disagree about a war, we must always honor those who serve and welcome them home with the respect they deserve, we can join together today, Vietnamese and Americans, and acknowledge the pain and the sacrifices on both sides…

    And I believe our experience holds lessons for the world. At a time when many conflicts seem intractable, seem as if they will never end, we have shown that hearts can change and that a different future is possible when we refuse to be prisoners of the past. We’ve shown how peace can be better than war. We’ve shown that progress and human dignity is best advanced by cooperation and not conflict. That’s what Vietnam and America can show the world…

    And many years from now, when even more Vietnamese and Americans are studying with each other; innovating and doing business with each other; standing up for our security, and promoting human rights and protecting our planet with each other — I hope you think back to this moment and draw hope from the vision that I’ve offered today. Or, if I can say it another way — in words that you know well from the Tale of Kieu — “Please take from me this token of trust, so we can embark upon our 100-year journey together.”

    Conservatives are always worrying that President Obama is intent on apologizing for America. As these words demonstrate, that is not his concern. His aim is to further the cause of healing from the wounds that still reside in many of us – both here and in Vietnam – so that we can embrace that “token of trust” for a more hopeful next 100 years.

    Reply
  37. rikyrah says:
    May 25, 2016 at 8:32 am

    Tom Junod, in Esquire — “The modern, extremist right was pretty much invented in opposition to her (and her husband). Now it’s up to her (alone) to stop it”

    ………………………………………………..

    … Of course, she sounded paranoid back when she first said it—participants in apocalyptic battles always sound paranoid when they first say they’re participants in apocalyptic battles. They sound especially paranoid when they answer a question in apocalyptic terms when the question was really about, well, blowjobs. This was a long time ago. This was back in 1998. Bill Clinton was the president of the United States of America. Hillary Clinton was the First Lady. He’d offended people by being a resourceful rascal. She’d offended people by saying something about cookies. They’d both offended people by trying and failing to bring about universal health care and by trying (and sort of failing) to allow gays to serve openly in the military. They’d been under investigation for years for something they’d supposedly done in Arkansas when, really, everyone knew the investigation was about sex—and secrets. He’d been accused of rape in the nascent right-wing press; she’d been accused of murder; and now they were finally caught. He had a secret, indeed—he’d had sex with a young woman in the White House and he’d testified, under oath, that he hadn’t. He had sinned all right; he had sinned against her, his wife, so that now even she couldn’t defend him. But she did. And she defended him by inveighing against them—against the “vast right-wing conspiracy.”

    She sounded a little crazy. She sounded guilty of, at the very least, bad faith. Except that what she was saying turned out to be true—there really was an obscurely wealthy man, Richard Mellon Scaife, bankrolling the attacks against her and her husband; there really was a right-wing media spawned by structural changes overtaking the news business, and it had found, in the Clintons, the template for every story that was to follow. Her only error was a matter of language. She used the word vast to describe what she faced. It wasn’t vast, yet—

    It is now. Nearly 30 years later, Richard Mellon Scaife has evolved into the Koch brothers, the then-fledgling right-wing media now claims the biggest and most powerful cable-news network among its ranks, and the money unleashed by the Citizens United decision has conjured a ring of super PACs organized specifically against her candidacy. The vast right-wing conspiracy is still here, and yet—and here’s the thing—so is she. The vast right-wing conspiracy has outlasted everybody but her. From the start, the attacks on her have had a tendency to resolve themselves in the most mundane terms—the Whitewater investigation turned out to be about a husband lying about infidelity; the Benghazi investigation turned out to be about, of all things, Sidney Blumenthal. But that doesn’t mean that both sides haven’t known the stakes all along. She’s always chosen to fight on metaphysical ground; she’s always defended herself cosmically because she’s been attacked cosmically, and so she’s lived to fight another day. But now that day is here. She helped create the modern right wing; the modern right wing helped create her; and now there is no place for them to go except at each other. The 2016 election is nothing less than the climactic event of the last three decades of American politics, and—it’s an amazing and scary thing to be able to write these words without irony—the future of the Free World lies in the balance…

    ***********
    It wasn’t supposed to be her. It was supposed to be him. It was supposed to be Barack Obama—he was supposed to defeat the partisan forces in which she was ensnared by transcending them altogether. She is not a transcendent figure. She does not pretend to be. She does not even want to be. When she ran against him for the Democratic nomination in 2008, her supporters believed that he was naive; his, that she was cynical. Her supporters turned out to be right. “Obama came to Washington saying there’s no red America, there’s no blue America,” says one of Hillary Clinton’s close friends. “That was just wrong. There’s a battle going on over who the country works for. It’s going to be a pitched battle, because people don’t give up power easily. They’re not going to roll over. You have to win the argument, and Hillary knows that.”

    She has always known that, and now she has a chance to prove it. The election of 2008 was supposed to be epochal; it was not. The election of 2012 was supposed to be decisive; it was not. The president who was supposed to heal us only showed us the depth of our wounds; the country that congratulated itself for electing a black man to its highest office now stands riven by its most ancient and primal resentments and hatreds; the right wing that seemed outflanked by history in 2008 and demographics in 2012 has doubled down on unrepentant extremism. And the only person who can stop its ascendancy—who can, in the words of a close advisor, “break its back”—turns out to be the person the right wing was designed to destroy.

    They know it, too: the Republican candidates. Even before Donald Trump unsettled the race and unhinged the rhetoric, they measured how far they could go by how far they could go in their hostility toward Hillary Clinton. In one debate after another, they tried to prove their toughness to Republican voters by saying tough things about a woman they knew Republican voters feared and despised. Chris Christie accused her of supporting “the systemic murder of children” and vowed to “prosecute” her should he be given the opportunity to debate her. Carly Fiorina called herself “Hillary Clinton’s worst nightmare.” Marco Rubio, nearly trembling with his own sense of righteousness, flatly called her “a liar.” And Trump bragged that his contributions to the Clinton Foundation empowered him to compel her attendance at his wedding, the implication being that he and he alone was strong enough to make Hillary kneel. She was their historical enemy, and so she was the foundation for what their campaigns would become. A presidential race in which all candidates understood that there was nothing too extreme they could say about Hillary Clinton evolved into a race in which they realized that there was nothing too extreme they could say about anything or anybody at all…

    Reply
  38. rikyrah says:
    May 25, 2016 at 8:11 am

    May 25, 2016 8:30 AM
    The Most Important Legacy of Barack and Michelle Obama
    By Nancy LeTourneau

    Barack and Michelle Obama entered the White House not only with an awareness about what was coming, but also an understanding that they would face this kind of onslaught as the first African Americans to live there. There have been times that I’ve tried to imagine the weight they willingly took on their shoulders to avoid those kinds of entanglements – knowing what the slightest human imperfection would trigger.

    It’s not that Republicans haven’t tried. We’ve seen attempts to blow up everything from a gun-running sting gone bad, mistreated veterans, the botched rollout of HealthCare.gov, the Bowe Bergdahl prisoner exchange, Secret Service debauchery, the IRS targeting, Hillary Clinton’s email server and Benghazi. That doesn’t even count all the times we’ve been subjected to complaints about teleprompters, the President’s golf game, family vacations, and the color of the suit the President wore for a press conference (to name just a few). But other than in the minds of the conspiracy-obsessed, nothing stuck.

    As we approach the 2016 election and the end of this President’s second term, we’ll continue to see attempts to summarize his legacy of accomplishments. This one should be at the top of any list. That is partly because an attempt to de-legitimize him via scandal has failed. It is also why he will be positioned to be an asset to Hillary Clinton. But in ways that are probably not yet imagined, Barack and Michelle Obama have paved the way for countless young African Americans to be proud, and aspire to follow in their footsteps.

    Reply
    • eliihass says:
      May 25, 2016 at 7:34 pm

      LOL…

      Ms Ann ain’t slick..

      How did a write-up supposedly about ‘Barack and Michelle Obama’ end up being all about Hillary and getting Hillary into the Oval office..?

      A story about what the Obamas have been subjected to – and yet nothing about the unprecedented, vicious and very targeted dehumanization of the historic First Lady in ways not even her elected husband the President was…

      But somehow, Hillary’s self-inflicted wounds such as …the IRS targeting, Hillary Clinton’s email server and Benghazi…somehow make the list – and is somehow listed as part of the attacks on the Obamas..?

      And how’s this for condescending bullshit:

      “..But in ways that are probably not yet imagined, Barack and Michelle Obama have paved the way for countless young African Americans to be proud, and aspire to follow in their footsteps…”

      I’ve told you fam, some of these so-called ‘supporters’ of the President ain’t sh*t…and are as transparent as they think they’re slick…

      Reply
      • Ametia says:
        May 25, 2016 at 7:46 pm

        The DEVIL is in the details, isn’t it, eliihaas.

        Reply
        • eliihass says:
          May 25, 2016 at 7:59 pm

          Uh huh Ametia…these folks ain’t slick Ametia…

          They keep peeing on folks and as long as they punctuate it with squeals of President Obama, we are supposed to think we’re all on the same side and all on the same mission…

          Lies..

          Reply
  39. rikyrah says:
    May 25, 2016 at 5:06 am

    Good Morning☺, Everyone 😉

    Reply

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